yes, i'm grateful - day 5

it is lovely and cool today... sun is still shining, but the humidity has dropped and I'M LOVING IT!!!!!!

yes, i'm grateful - day 4

i spent a few hours volunteering at the Life With Cancer Family Centre Monday afternoon.
every time i am there i am reminded how precariously we are balanced on the edge of "good health," and at any moment we could drop.

all those children who have been affected by cancer... either they have it, their brother or sister has it, a parent has it.... and it's not as though they have done anything to bring it on themselves. it's not like they were ever smokers... for example.

i have had my ups and downs with my health, but for the most part, i'm doing pretty well. and i'm so grateful for that.

yes, i'm grateful - day 3

♪♫♪ Sunday Sunday... so good to me  ♪♫♪

it was stinking hot when i woke up... and although i had had some illusions of "getting stuff done," they quickly went out the window. 

Sunday was a day for lounging, curled up on the couch in the air conditioning, enjoying a cup of coffee with my hung over husband.... long chats on skype with friends... watching the soccer game with the roommate (who just got back from playing soccer in France, incidentally)... i didn't even cook dinner!

so a lazy day altogether. and i loved it.

yes, i'm grateful - day 2

okay... playing catch up now...

daily gratitude didn't last long now did it!!


so, gratitude from Saturday:

started the day with a 7 mile run with Team In Training.... we met at 7am, and i was no only on time, but fifteen minutes early. normally i roar into the parking lot moments before we're supposed to already be on the trail. so i'm grateful for getting there on time.

it was a relatively cool morning, though horrendously humid. but in spite of the sweat pouring off of me, some trail side sign told me i was looking good!!

my husband got home from work not too long after i got home from my run, and while he slept i found some shady spots to get some yard work done.

when he woke up, we went to have a glass of wine with a colleague of his.... and stayed for four bottles! i was designated driver, but enjoyed their drunken company (which isn't always the case when drunk and sober mingle)...

so an altogether pleasant day  :o)

yes, i'm grateful - day 1

it's quiet here this morning.... the little red dog and i were out and about before the sun hit full force... you know, barking at squirrels and watering the plants.

ask and ye shall receive, it seems.

i posted a little note on Facebook a couple nights ago about missing far away friends, because i've been feeling quite lonely the last few weeks. yesterday i had an e-mail with a phone number for an old friend that i've not seen in about two decades, and we have a phone date for the weekend. this morning i had letters in the mail... and an hour long phone call with a friend who's just had a baby and for the first time in ages had time to talk.

i feel re-connected.

funny how little it takes.

i think it's time...

to do another month of gratitude postings, because i'm feeling decidedly ungrateful these days.


GRATITUDE THIS WAY COMES!!!.......... starting tomorrow 'cos i'm really too grumpy to think of any to get the ball rolling tonight.

fairy lights...

i have never lived in a place where fireflies lived, until i moved to Virginia...  last summer we were in a pretty urban area, and i got all excited to see the odd one here or there, but here in the wilds of the new home... we have SERIOUS fireflies!!

my husband calls them lightning bugs...

there's something quite magical about them... little green glows, popping up here and there, flashing on for a moment and then off again, like morse code.

i wonder what they're telling each other... is it like the bee dance, indicating the good gathering grounds?



i was just out taking the dog for his last stroll of the day, and as i walked down our road there were a cluster of trees that were lit up like they were strung with the daintiest of blinking Christmas lights.

t-t-t-tuner!

a couple years ago, not long after my husband announced our engagement to his parents... his dad found a piano at an estate sale, and haggled the sellers down from $125 to $100 -- for the piano and bench, a little piano top lamp and a metronome...

which he then stored in the back of his SUV for a couple weeks until we went for a visit and he was able to surprise me with his gift.

i was thrilled and delighted, as i used to play but have not had a piano in my home since i left home to go to university. lets just say that it has been more than a decade... and i was delighted that he was so excited to have found this lovely gift for me, the daughter-in-law to be...

who knows how long it sat neglected before he bought it, but it has been moved three times since then... and although everything technically works, it is dreadfully out of tune.

and so... the tuner comes today.


yippeee!

tick, tick, tick, tick...

so, the little red dog and i were out in the back yard for several hours yesterday.

he was eating acorns, and possibly some bugs... and then napping in a pile of leaves, and i was pulling weeds. i felt a little pinch on my arm, and gave it a swat thinking it was just one amongst many mosquitos biting... and then it pinched again, so i had a closer look.

and it was a little reddish-brown tick... looking suspiciously like a freckle on my arm. i tried to smear him off (aka, kill him) but seconds later he was continuing his march across my wrist to find a tender place to make himself (or herself, i suppose) comfortable. it took several attempts to get him off of me, and then i mushed him between two rocks until i was sure he wouldn't just bounce back again.

i decided it was time to go in and have a shower... only to feel that pinch again, this time inside my shirt... on my stomach.

might i just say "ew. ew. ew. ew. ew!"

this one came off easier, thank goodness. but as i was about to take the dog inside, it occurred to me that he'd been lounging in the same tick-infested woods that i had been working in.... and since the ticks were tiny and pretty much exactly the same colour as his fur... i took the brush to him for a good hour before letting him into the house.

his owner left mediation to put on his skin once a month to deter (aka kill) ticks and fleas and lice and other such nuisances.... so i'm not so worried about him.

but i am wondering if they make a similar product for us humans (cos there are parts of me that i just can't see, and wouldn't you just know it but i can feel things crawling on me there right now!)

things that make me happy

right now, at this very moment, i'm feeling pretty happy.

• the sun is shining, but it is still cool outside
• the birds are singing on all sides of the house
• the coffee turned out juuuust right this morning (you know how sometimes it's good and sometimes it's great? today it's divine)
• after a nice long walk, the little red dog is curled up by the front door snoozing
• i'm not too stiff and sore from Sunday's half marathon, but i'm booked in for a massage in an hour anyway
• my sweetheart and i went out for dinner with some friends on Sunday, and then lounged over coffees in their back yard. they have a beautiful little pond full of simple plants and goldfish, and i'm feeling re-inspired about getting the work on my flower beds done.
• i ordered some piano music online, and it has arrived.... and the piano tuner is coming later this week. so i am committed to getting back to playing.